Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Hee-Haw Hell

Top of the eighth inning, up by one run, nobody out, Rod Barajas doubles...Fuqua sends Carlos Ruiz to run for Barajas, leaving Pat Burrell as the only position player on the bench. All the Phils need in this situation is to sacrifice an out, move the runner to third for Rollins, and push across an insurance run for the 'pen. So who should be put in to bunt Ruiz over to third instead of Romero, who has never been in the NL before? Hamels? Moyer? Kendrick? Nope, all wrong. Manuel sends his last position player, .203-hitting Pat Burrell to the plate. No way Burrell is hitting a grounder to the right side, the way he pulls off the ball. With his average in the last two months, it is unlikely he's going to get a base hit. Basically, Fuqua is playing the 4% chance that Burrell will hit one deep, and Ruiz can trot home at a slightly faster pace than Barajas. The result: predictable useless out from Burrell, the Phils don't add an insurance run, Lance Barksdale screws them, and Joe Table gives up the game-winner to some skinny little spaz.

Complain all you want to about the umpire as that was one of the worst calls at the worst time you will ever see in a major league baseball game not involving the Yankees, but that didn't cost them the game. And neither did Propane Joe and the combustible bullpen. No, this game was squandered by Fuqua and his complete ineptitude to manage a National League baseball team in a close game.

He replaced three position players in a one-run game! Does he forget that there is no DH? Is it too difficulty or mind-boggling for Manuel to comprehend that the opposition may score a single run to tie the game and extend it to the point where he may have to pinch hit for a pitcher or two? Do you think he even considered moving Barajas/Ruiz to third with a bunt? I say yes, yes, and no.

The Phillies may have no shot at the playoffs this year based on their starting pitching situation, so the shackles of retardedness that Charlie Manuel has locked onto this team don't really matter. I just hope that when they are in real contention, he's not there to hold them back.-----------------------------------Helen Keller Thinks You Blew That One...This is a picture of Lance Barksdale. He sucks.

Bentz - "You know it is becoming obvious that you must need NO qualifications to be a major league umpire." How very untrue. You need vision superior to "legal blindness," along with the ability to make up balks when none exist, dust off homeplate with a small broom, click that stupid counter after every pitch, remember to clear it after each batter and inning, and stay thinner than Eric Gregg. You also need a fancy fist-pump or downward punch to pronounce an out, and you must be able to do it with varied ferocity depending on which team you are rooting for. Oh, and you must not have a soul.

23 comments:

I give umps some leeway when it comes to bang-bang plays, but that was complete bullshit. I don't know how Ryan Howard contained himself. I would have be all up in that umps grill Carl Everett style. The Phils are quite capable of losing on their own, they have a long storied history of it, they don't need assistance from cock-gobbling umps making blatantly obvious shitty calls.

Manuel is a moron. He continues to burn through the bullpen and bench at an alarming rate. We all hate having a pitch pinch-hit, but wait until the day when we have to insert a pitcher to play the field because of an injury and there's no bench left because Manuel used it all up by the 8th inning.

Like I asked yesterday- Why is Jose Mesa in the Major Leagues? HORRIBLE!

The Angels once talked of curses until they one a championship. The curse of the BAmbino finally broke and we all know about the Cubs. But we the Phillies have the dumb-ass curse. Dumb-ass ownership group, dumb-ass manager.Fortunes may never change until all the dumb-asses have been eliminated.

By the way, last night's loss makes us 11-13 since the start of the KC series on June 8th. So enough of that bullshit about "most wins in the NL since blah, blah, blah" because we're back to sucking hind teat.

Back to .500, and my guess is we'll dip below that sometime within the next week. This team isn't good. We have talent, but our pitching staff is composed of garbage and shit, our manager humps sheep, and our GM doesn't care.

Hot rumor- Michael Bourn to the Rangers for Akinori Otsuka. Otsuka is awesome and would easily be the best closer on the staff (yes, better than Brett Myers), but I'm really liking Bourn. If Rowand leaves in free agency, we need Bourn to plug into CF. Hell, we need Bourn this season to plug into LF with Pat "Forgot my Bat" Burrell raping the organization of millions.

Honestly at this stage (I don't want to sound like I'm giving up on the season), I don't think the Phillies should make a move for a pitcher if they are giving up anything of substance. The problem is there is nothing to trade except one of our OFs, all of whom we need, except Rowand who we could lose as a free agent. But keeping him gives a better shot at re-signing him in the off-season. One reliever or starter isn't going to do the trick. Garcia and Lieber come off the books in the off-season, I'd sooner play for next year. I just don't see them catching the Mets, let alone San Diego, Arizona or LA for the wild card. The team needs too much that simply can't be attained and any move will likely majorly sacrifice the future to win now when winning now isn't that likely.

No way as far a trading Bourn. I know Victorino is a likeable chap but Bourn looks to be somebody who can rock .375+ OB%, fly like the wind and be a legit lead-off man. If you can move Vic for Otsuka (pending MRI), go ahead and lets have OF of Dobbs/Bourn and Japanese star Kosuke Fukudome in RF for 2008. The Phillies blew it by not getting Akinori Iwamura on the cheap for 3B, this time get it right and Fukudome.

the only guy i would trade bourn for is roy oswalt, or a like-pitcher. since that wont happen, lets just hang onto him. i hope the phils listen to all offers at the deadline, and take a strong SELLER'S approach, rather than buyers. i'd almost be more pissed if the phils did pull it out this season since they made me suffer through crap like this. also, there would be a better chance than fuqua could be fired.....or worse.

Who to trade for and who to trade away are difficult questions. When a team is in need, the best outcome is to find a player that is better and more valuable then what you are trading away. The problem is that in order to make really good deals, you need to find a rube to supply the good stuff for your bad. And unfortunately, my friends, our team has a long history of being the rube.

I'm not sure the Phils should be buyers or sellers come the end of July. I say hold on to everyone, unless we get a great offer for Rowand, and of course if anybody is stupid enough to take Barajas or Burrell.

Looks like we might win one today. 8-2 in the 8th...of course with this bullpen, who knows?!

I want Chris Coste to be the starting catcher. You all know I really like Chooch Ruiz, but Coste is a hitting machine. At least let the two of them split time and trade away Barajas for some minor league filler.

Sure we need pitching the MLB Free Agent class sucked aside from Weathers for resigned with Cincy, Spier a kid from Walnut Creek Californis who signed for 18 million dollars with the LA Angels,and promptly went on the DL.

Also I want everone to remember all the UMPIRE CALLS in Atlanta that went against the Phillies over the last decade.

Eaton would not have given up a 3 spot the night before if he had gotten a strikeout he deserved when the ball was clearly a strike.

I'm watching Rockies-Mets on MLB.tv and it's nice to see the Mutts getting thrashed. El Duque was giving up walk after walk, and now Guillermo Mota has been torched too. Nice win for the Phils today, and it looks like they might pick up a game on the Mutts.

I like this Rockies lineup a lot from what I have seen. Hopefully the Phils staff can bring it this weekend.

I just read that Barksdale apologized to Fuqua for blowing that call and costing the Phillies the game. Of course that apology doesn't amount to shit in terms of the standings. Won't even get you a free win on a coin flip for home field advantage in case of a tie. Charlie responds by saying, "Even I made a mistake one day." Ha-ha! Oh he's a funny guy! If only he could limit himself to one mistake a day.

Siralden is right, it isn't worth making trades for medium level talent (even if medium level talent is better than 90% of our bullpen). Although I completely agree that if anyone is dumb enough to want him, we should ship Barajas out for anything with a pulse. All Coste does when he's in the lineup is hit and play hard. Not to mention with all the minor league catching experience he has, he's probably the best suited for handling our minor league bullpen!

SirAlden- the "Mendoza" line is actually .200 and below. Burrell will break through sometime this season.

Unless the Phils make an incredible run at the Mets and draw even with them or even overtake them, I say don't trade at all. I was all for making trades a few weeks ago, but the opportunity has passed us by. We had our chance to jump to the front of the NL East with solid play, but instead we were losing to the Royals and other lesser competition.